Understanding Family Diversity and Home - School Relations : A Guide for Students and Practitioners in Early Years and Primary Settings

How can adults in Early Years settings and primary schools fully embrace the diverse nature of family life of the children they are working with? This essential text will help students and those already working with children to understand both theoretically and practically, what may constitute a ‘family’. It explores how to build relationships with a child’s family to ensure early years settings and schools are working in partnership with children’s home environments, thereby supporting the best possible learning outcomes for children. It will help the reader to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding of their professional practice in education, and chapter by chapter explores the challenges that may be experienced in working with the diverse nature of family life in the UK, including: mixed race families immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker families step-families and step-parenting gay and lesbian families families and adoption fostering and children in care families living in poverty families and bereavement families and disability (including mental health). Understanding Family Diversity and Home-School Relations is engagingly practical, using case study examples throughout, and providing reflective activities to help the reader consider how to develop their practice in relation to the insights this book provides. It is a unique road-map to understanding pupils’ backgrounds, attitudes and culture and will be essential reading for any student undertaking relevant Foundation and BA Degrees, including those in initial teacher training, taking post-graduate qualifications or as part of a practitioner’s professional development. Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Introduction 10 1 Families, home–school relations and achievement 16 2 Families, identity and cultural heritage 33 3 Mixed race families 49 4 Immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker families 66 5 Step-families and step-parenting 82 6 Gay and lesbian families and gay and lesbian parenting 97 7 Families, disability and mental health 113 8 When family life breaks down: fostering and children in care 129 9 Families and adoption 143 10 Families living in poverty 159 11 Families and bereavement 174 Bibliography 189 Index 200 This essential text will help students and those working with children to understand what may constitute a 'family' and how to build relationships with a child's family in order to support the best possible learning.